YHA to close three Cumbrian lodges as critics say it is too corporate and in danger of losing its character
For 50 years, the Youth Hostels Association has run a hostel at Barrow House in the Lake District, built in 1787 by a local eccentric, who diverted a waterfall behind the house with gunpowder so that it could be better viewed from his windows.
The elegant white mansion has stunning views of the lakes, and although past its best ? moles have turned its front lawn into mounds of earth ? remains popular with school groups, couples getting married and mountaineers. But the hostel has been earmarked for sale, one of at least eight being auctioned off as the YHA wrestles with years of under investment and rising demands of a public no longer prepared to rough it with "basic" accomodation. Three of those are being sold in the Lake District and the YHA hopes to raise �2m from the sale of Barrow House alone.
The YHA, a charity founded in 1930 with the aim of giving young people the chance for a break from their everyday lives, has a network of 150 hostels across England and Wales and reckons it needs to spend �90m just to get the estate up to scratch. "We've been spending about �3m less than we should have been each year over the last 30 years," said a spokesman. In Derwentwater, it is aware the building is need of major refurbishment and the site would need �1.2m to bring it up to standard.
But critics argue that the YHA is in danger of losing its character by selling off properties such as Barrow Hall and focusing more on homogenous city sites. A campaign group has been started on Facebook urging the YHA to reconsider its decision on the Lake District. "What is troubling everybody is this hostel is in a unique position and location and recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening," said former YHA worker Fiona McCarthy, who has signed up to the campaign. "It's like the YHA is selling off the family silver."
She says the hostel makes a profit ? not disputed by the YHA ? and claims that the organisation has refused to plough the cash back into refurbishments. Several years ago the hostel was awarded lottery funding, but the YHA refused to match the investment and it was lost. The YHA said it was unable to develop a viable financial plan. "The YHA is in a mess and like the government has to make cuts ? I can understand that," says McCarthy. "But it's such a shame as it is a very successful hostel. Some of the schools have been coming back for 20 or 30 years."
McCarthy claims the YHA is trying to make every hostel "like a Travelodge" but "it's meant to be budget accommodation that is quirky".
YHA member Jim Pearson, a cyclist, walker and retired lecturer, has been involved with youth hostels for 60 years and is also critical of the decision. "It is supposed to be for young people to enjoy the countryside. That's the YHA's purpose ? it says so on the front of the handbook," he says. "I am starting to lose patience with an organisation that is opening up city hostels and breaking up the network."
Mountain rescue volunteer Roy Henderson, who lives in Keswick, describes the news of the closure as "absolutely awful". He says it as "hardly a forward-thinking decision looking to the future. Although some hostels need refurbishing, once the YHA sells off its assets it won't be able to get them back."
Hawskhead youth hostel, on the edge of Grizedale forest, is another facing closure. "We have groups of schoolchildren coming here who've never even seen a sheep," says manager Mel Fairhurst. At the moment it was "business as normal" but there were concerns in the local community, where YHA customers spend money on food and drink.
Mark Robinson, director of Carnegie Great Outdoors, brings 1,000 students from Leeds Metropolitan University to the Lake District youth hostels each autumn as a team-building exercise. He takes a more pragmatic view. "We stay in a lot of YHA properties and some of them are in need of investment. Like any business it needs to raise capital to reinvest, so I can understand the logic. I would rather have 80 high-quality hostels than 120 that are run down."
The YHA says it plans to invest more than �4m in some of its best-loved hostels in England and Wales over the next year, including its hostel in Oxford Street in central London.
"YHA is committed to having a network of youth hostels that meet the needs of our customers both now and in the future ? financially sustainable, and ones in which we can invest securely. The plans for this year are a major step towards achieving that goal," it said.
A spokesman said Derwentwater, Hawkshead and another Cumbrian hostel earmarked for closure in Helvellyn will remain open "until at least the end of the 2011 season and in our experience may remain open for longer. Closing a youth hostel is never easy and YHA does understand the impact this decision will have." He added: "By closing and selling hostels, YHA can release the capital value of these sites to pay for the future investments needed elsewhere and to reduce the amount of money we need to borrow to meet our needs."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/feb/23/youth-hostels-association-selling-off
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